Posted by baseball55 on January 14, 2014, at 20:03:42
In reply to Attachment Theory?, posted by SLS on January 13, 2014, at 22:18:23
Just to expand on Alex's reply. Toddlers are in a room with their mothers. The mother leaves and then researchers evaluate how toddler responds when mother returns. Secure attachment - toddler welcomes mother back and plays happily. Anxious attachment - toddler fusses and seems ambivalent about mother's return. Avoident attachment - toddler ignores mother.
Theory is that attachment issues/relationship issues as adults are related to early parent/child attachment. There is no actual evidence for this, because no long-term longitudinal studies, but the idea makes sense from a psychodynamic perspective.
Children who could not form a bond with a parent (avoident attachment) will have difficulty forming bonds as adults. Personally, I know for a fact I was a case of avoident attachment. I actually ran away from my mother when I was three and ran away from home when I was five. I had tremendous difficulty as an adult in forming close bonds with people.
The theory is that borderline-type characteristics (fear of abandonment, unstable relationships) in adults probably started as anxious attachment in early childhood.
poster:baseball55
thread:1058503
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20131211/msgs/1058567.html